Interpreting The Bible

Jesus Freak

Previously DanaCovert68
Hey. I want this to be just me talking a minute about how each of us Christians interpret the bible, and not a debate topic.

We all interpret the bible differently. Also verses. If someone tells you what they THINK a verse means, you do the same. You don't try to tell you're right. For example:

Philippians 4:13,"I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me."

That verse to ME means that if you can't do something, you give it to Him, and He will give you all the strength to do it.

What am I saying? I'm saying that we interpret the bible in our OWN way. No one is right, or wrong.
 
I can't help but feel that if we reduce it to "this is how I interpret this verse so it is my truth and that is how you interpret this verse so that this is your truth" we reduce the Word of God. And also.....if we make Truth valid based on our own opinion and understanding....it is still infallible? Is it then the Word of Christ or does it become the word of us - as we seek to interpret and understand ourselves? "Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6.

We are called to be of one mind (Philippians 2:2) ...and there is one Spirit that teaches (1 John 2:27). There is one Truth ("I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.") And things of the Spirit (like the Word of God) are to be discerned spiritually....the natural man (and his mind) can not grasp spiritual things. "But [a]a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually [b]appraised." 1 Corinthians 2:14. Therefore, there is one Truth, one interpretation and one Spirit that gives that interpretation/truth/teaching.

And furthermore this salvation of ours as described all throughout the New Testament as a walk. The Bible (the Word) gets richer and more profound and deeper as we walk further (grow more mature) with our God. The Spirit feeds us milk first, and then meat...He gives us the Truth of the Word as we are ready for it....bit by bit....as we grow in becoming perfect reflections of God! :)

But I think the key is this: "Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude." 1 Peter 3:8.

Saying someone else is wrong is not wrong....BUT WHEN WE SAY IT WITH CAPITOL LETTERS, AND LOTS OF !!!!!!!!! AND WHEN WE START NAME CALLING AND GOING BACK AND FORTH FOR PAGES AND PAGES - WHEN WE TAKE PRIDE IN BEING RIGHT AND DO EVERYTHING WE CAN TO TRUMP/DROWN OUT EVERYONE ELSE AND ASSUME THAT WE AND WE ALONE CAN BE WHITE KNIGHTS OF TRUTH.....we run into problems (get my point there? Lol!) "If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing!" 1 Corinthians 13:12.

Are you in love? Are you being humble and 100% led by God to speak and are the words you are saying/typing from the Spirit? Then post....even disagree....as long as it is in love and for the sake of building up the entire Body in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 12)!

And I am not trying to start a debate with this reply, dear Dana. I just wanted to get this out there. :) No strife intended!
 
I actually agree with you @Tressa you have good points. But what I'm saying is everyone comes away with their meaning of a verse differently than another person. That's all I'm saying. And of course I'm in love. I'm in love with The Lord. I am humble. And I know you're not trying to start a debate. You're posting your opinions about this.
 
Hey. I want this to be just me talking a minute about how each of us Christians interpret the bible, and not a debate topic.

We all interpret the bible differently. Also verses. If someone tells you what they THINK a verse means, you do the same. You don't try to tell you're right. For example:

Philippians 4:13,"I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me."

That verse to ME means that if you can't do something, you give it to Him, and He will give you all the strength to do it.

What am I saying? I'm saying that we interpret the bible in our OWN way. No one is right, or wrong.

This is one thing with which the unbelieving world has attacked Church always.. If Christians cannot agree on the interpretation of Buble among themselves, how are they going to convince the unbelieving world! If Bible is inspired by God, why there are so many interpretations? The problem is not with the Word. The problem is with the receiving person.. We are imperfect. We are not capable of handling or knowing things entirely.. Communication is always 2-way.. Speaker and receiver.. In this case, Speaker is Holy Spirit - perfect.. Receiver would be human kind - imperfect..

However, there are certain fundamental doctrines such as nature of God, Salvation, etc.. We cannot disagree on those! That would become heresy.. The minor doctrinal differences does not change how we pursue our Christian walk.. We can still live in unity inspite of diversity.. Typical example is rapture.. It does not change our Christian life anyway! Believe in rapture or don't.. Same goes with tribulation.. Pre mid or post..

Also, I don't agree people interpreting verses in their own way.. Bible should not be read or interpreted in that fashion.. It becomes very evident when verses are taken out of context.. When we look at Bible with context and not take a verse out of context, most of the doctrinal errors will go away..
 
However, there are certain fundamental doctrines such as nature of God, Salvation, etc.. We cannot disagree on those! That would become heresy.. The minor doctrinal differences does not change how we pursue our Christian walk.. We can still live in unity inspite of diversity.. Typical example is rapture.. It does not change our Christian life anyway! Believe in rapture or don't.. Same goes with tribulation.. Pre mid or post..

Nature of God and salvation are two big ones. If we don't know God, then it makes the rest of the Word hard to fathom.

Do we know God by what men say and what our concept of God should be, or do we find God in scripture and Know him by what scriptures say?

I think we will find that many scriptures get blurred to many when it comes to understanding God and how he operates even though it's simple and plain to read.

Some seem to loose sense of comprehension when talking about scripture, then do just fine reading a secular book.

So what should be fundamental is not fundamental when one looses their ability to read because of bad doctrine blocking their view.

The biggest attack on the Nature of God is called Calvinism, Armanism and Molinism. All old man made doctrines that leave far to many scripture contradiction to be right. Yet people buy into it.

How can people buy into something with scriptural contradictions? It don't make sense but when you use a broken doctrine to understand God, you get off into error.

If Satan can twist how we see God, then he can stop us from Walking in the promises of God.

We should believe what Scriptures say, line upon line to understand God. ZERO contradictions accepted.
 
Okay, guys. What is the main point of the bible? I am going to put it this way: to understand what a verse means in layman terms, to make it more simple. Like my verse I quoted:

"I can do everything through Christ which gives me strength."

I say all this because it is hard to know what they are saying in the original text.
 
Okay, guys. What is the main point of the bible? I am going to put it this way: to understand what a verse means in layman terms, to make it more simple. Like my verse I quoted:

"I can do everything through Christ which gives me strength."

I say all this because it is hard to know what they are saying in the original text.

Well, what does that verse mean? What scriptures can we compare? What does Christ mean? You know Christ was never translated, it's still a Greek Word.

Same as Apostle.

never Translated.

Same as Baptized.

never translated.

Baptized sounds much cooler than "Dunk in liquid"
 
Hey Dana, to build here, remember that Paul said to Timothy to KNOW what God's Word says AND MEANS. That means that His Word means something specific in each instance. Can you get fresh revelation of a verse? Of course, but the fact that Paul said we have to know what it means by definition means that it cannot mean whatever someone thinks it means, but rather God means just what He says.
This is one of the Devil's main attacks on the Truth; his "invention" of all these different "religions" and trying to get "tolerance" of any and all beliefs over anything...to get people to think that ALL "views"/"cultures"/"religions" are equal and valid, when in reality, nothing could be further from the Truth. It would be like comparing amounts of money and saying that $10 is just as good as $100,000,000,000 and that money is as good as 10 cents and that is as good as $100, when in reality, $100,000,000,000 is the best one.
Only God's Word is valid as Truth, because Jesus is the Word and the Word is Truth. Since He says His Word is Truth, and not "Truths", means that each verse means exactly what God wrote by the Holy Spirit.
 
And to build on Michael, Christ, being untranslated, is the exact same as the Hebrew word Messiah, which means the Anointed One/the Anointed One and His Anointing/The Anointing depending on where it is used.
 
It's why we have Christmas..... CHRIST - mas, mas being the Latin for celebrate, so we are celebrating the Anointed One and the Anointing that came with Him that God sent to us.
 
Okay. I see what you're saying. Just because I think a verse is what I think it means, what God said is what He said.
 
Nature of God and salvation are two big ones. If we don't know God, then it makes the rest of the Word hard to fathom.

Do we know God by what men say and what our concept of God should be, or do we find God in scripture and Know him by what scriptures say?

I think we will find that many scriptures get blurred to many when it comes to understanding God and how he operates even though it's simple and plain to read.

Some seem to loose sense of comprehension when talking about scripture, then do just fine reading a secular book.

So what should be fundamental is not fundamental when one looses their ability to read because of bad doctrine blocking their view.

The biggest attack on the Nature of God is called Calvinism, Armanism and Molinism. All old man made doctrines that leave far to many scripture contradiction to be right. Yet people buy into it.

How can people buy into something with scriptural contradictions? It don't make sense but when you use a broken doctrine to understand God, you get off into error.

If Satan can twist how we see God, then he can stop us from Walking in the promises of God.

We should believe what Scriptures say, line upon line to understand God. ZERO contradictions accepted.

Michael, I don't know if you are agreeing with me or actually posting a counter argument :) Or I don't know if it is a personal advice from you to me!! I actually agree with all your points..

I would like to hear your thoughts on this.. Every kind of belief system (be it Calvinism, Arminianism, Reformed, Pentecostal, Word of Faith and so on) is based on Bible verses.. The differences come due to difference in interpretation.. At what point do we consider the difference as heresy? The reason I ask this is, everyone within Protestant denominations will accept that Salvation is by faith alone.. Anything beyond this would be considered heresy.. But where should the line be drawn? Should a Reformed person consider Arminian as heretic?
 
Michael, I don't know if you are agreeing with me or actually posting a counter argument :) Or I don't know if it is a personal advice from you to me!! I actually agree with all your points..

I would like to hear your thoughts on this.. Every kind of belief system (be it Calvinism, Arminianism, Reformed, Pentecostal, Word of Faith and so on) is based on Bible verses.. The differences come due to difference in interpretation.. At what point do we consider the difference as heresy? The reason I ask this is, everyone within Protestant denominations will accept that Salvation is by faith alone.. Anything beyond this would be considered heresy.. But where should the line be drawn? Should a Reformed person consider Arminian as heretic?

I am not poking at you Brother. Salvation is pretty clear to most denominations.

It's the after we get saved part.

Now all things have become new, former things have passed away. Once saved which is pretty standard across the board that the Blood of Jesus washes away sin, He was resurrected on the 3rd day by which we have hope. (His bones were not found in a box)

So that leaves the nature of God part to deal with. Now that we have God, what can we expect if anything. Have you ever prayed to God for help for something? How do we expect God to respond to that prayer? I believe it's important.

All I did was list the 3 Major Doctrines that define the Nature of God while attempting to keep the Sovereignty of God.

You find these doctrines embedded in all denominations. They effect us and how we think of God.

So are these Doctrines actually found in scripture? How do we interpret scriptures that counter these doctrines?

If I had to pick one it would be Calvinism. However I don't even pick that. Arminian's really believe in Election, they are just to dumb to understand that.

"God gives man a free choice, but God knows what those choices are before man makes them."
That is the Arminian attempt to keep the sovereignty of God into the equation. God puts the spirit in man.............. So if God knows before putting the man on earth, then by default it's election anyway.

(Unless God just closes his eyes and drops man at random then opens his eyes and at some point gets some fortune telling foreknowledge about each man) We are fearfully and wonderfully made, so there was a better plan than that when we were created and put in a body.

It's like Me saying I will run out of gas before I get to work. So I drive to work and sure enough I run out of Gas before I get to work.

Was it my great foreknowledge that I ran out of gas? Or was it my stupidity for not stopping at the gas station to get some gas?

People's understanding of the nature of God seemed to be wrapped up in these doctrines.
 
I am not poking at you Brother. Salvation is pretty clear to most denominations.

It's the after we get saved part.

Now all things have become new, former things have passed away. Once saved which is pretty standard across the board that the Blood of Jesus washes away sin, He was resurrected on the 3rd day by which we have hope. (His bones were not found in a box)

So that leaves the nature of God part to deal with. Now that we have God, what can we expect if anything. Have you ever prayed to God for help for something? How do we expect God to respond to that prayer? I believe it's important.

All I did was list the 3 Major Doctrines that define the Nature of God while attempting to keep the Sovereignty of God.

You find these doctrines embedded in all denominations. They effect us and how we think of God.

So are these Doctrines actually found in scripture? How do we interpret scriptures that counter these doctrines?

If I had to pick one it would be Calvinism. However I don't even pick that. Arminian's really believe in Election, they are just to dumb to understand that.

"God gives man a free choice, but God knows what those choices are before man makes them."
That is the Arminian attempt to keep the sovereignty of God into the equation. God puts the spirit in man.............. So if God knows before putting the man on earth, then by default it's election anyway.

(Unless God just closes his eyes and drops man at random then opens his eyes and at some point gets some fortune telling foreknowledge about each man) We are fearfully and wonderfully made, so there was a better plan than that when we were created and put in a body.

It's like Me saying I will run out of gas before I get to work. So I drive to work and sure enough I run out of Gas before I get to work.

Was it my great foreknowledge that I ran out of gas? Or was it my stupidity for not stopping at the gas station to get some gas?

People's understanding of the nature of God seemed to be wrapped up in these doctrines.

So let's keep the discussion to the actual question.. We have these different groups having a different understanding of nature of God.. This goes to the original question.. Interpreting Bible verses differently.. Everyone is going to say they are correct.. How do we deal with this difference? Do we go about calling each other heretic or accept the differences and others as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ?

And I will state my take on this also.. I don't think we should call each other heretics.. Because we are destined to be perfect, not there yet.. So it would be wrong to call each other as heretics..
 
I'm sticking to my original post where I say yes, people interpret the bible differently. And they interpret verses differently. And that's all I have to say about this.
 
So let's keep the discussion to the actual question.. We have these different groups having a different understanding of nature of God.. This goes to the original question.. Interpreting Bible verses differently.. Everyone is going to say they are correct.. How do we deal with this difference? Do we go about calling each other heretic or accept the differences and others as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ?

And I will state my take on this also.. I don't think we should call each other heretics.. Because we are destined to be perfect, not there yet.. So it would be wrong to call each other as heretics..

True, Paul said he see's through a glass darkly and wrote most the NT. Where does that put us?

For me, the Nature of God would be important to help people receive from God.

As it stands, a lot of denominations know the will of God concerning stealing and a list of other things God don't like. They also know the will of God concerning Salvation. Does the nature of God dictate that there might be more we can expect without fail according to the Word?

From what it looks like as the Original scripture.

I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me.

Is that everything? Some things? God empower you to do what your called to do, and our own things God is not obligated to help. So just starting a project on my own, I would not expect God to bless it if he never said do it. Lots of ways to look at that one scripture.

Blessings.
 
Hey. I want this to be just me talking a minute about how each of us Christians interpret the bible, and not a debate topic.

We all interpret the bible differently. Also verses. If someone tells you what they THINK a verse means, you do the same. You don't try to tell you're right. For example:

, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me."

That verse to ME means that if you can't do something, you give it to Him, and He will give you all the strength to do it.

What am I saying? I'm saying that we interpret the bible in our OWN way. No one is right, or wrong.

We still need to be careful how we interpret the scriptures. There was a Brother from India (I describe him from India to explain that his English was not the best) who read the scripture: "Be careful for nothing...". And he cried out "SEE BROTHER: EVEN FOR NOTHING DO WE HAVE TO BE CAREFUL!"
 
We still need to be careful how we interpret the scriptures. There was a Brother from India (I describe him from India to explain that his English was not the best) who read the scripture: "Be careful for nothing...". And he cried out "SEE BROTHER: EVEN FOR NOTHING DO WE HAVE TO BE CAREFUL!"

I had a Born and Raised American Brother tell me that Jesus said we should carry a Sword. He could not figure out why but he priced several swords just in case. I am Glad I was able to give him a clue about that.

Scripture should have said......... Worry about Nothing.
 
I had a Born and Raised American Brother tell me that Jesus said we should carry a Sword. He could not figure out why but he priced several swords just in case. I am Glad I was able to give him a clue about that.

Scripture should have said......... Worry about Nothing.

My Hindu Brother and I would have a wonderful time. We would praise God in song; then he would sing the same song in Hindi while I sang it in Spanish...then we would sing in English again! No interpretation needed there!
 
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